On a rainy August day in Ottawa, I attended a free noon-hour presentation at City Hall, part of a series of monthly walking events programmed by the city. Led by Dr. Barry Bruce, the subject was “chi walking” — a form of walking inspired by the ancient Chinese martial art tai chi. Bruce, whose medical practice is…
Last June, Bill Di Paola, one of the director’s of the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, gave me a walking tour of the neighbourhood’s public gardens and squats. Di Paola is a pioneering cycling activist and community organizer, and the small but fascinating museum is a great stop in and…
Back in November, I spent a day on the job with Canada Post letter carrier (sorry, delivery agent) Christine Murray in the west end of Ottawa. Just over a month later, Canada Post announced its plan to phase out home delivery, and eliminate 8,000 jobs. This has been a controversial decision. There is debate over…
When a freeway becomes a river, this is what happens. The Cheonggyecheon Freeway used to carry nearly 170,000 vehicles through the heart of Seoul, South Korea, every day. A decade ago, in the face of angry protests, a crusading mayor torn down the elevated 16-lane highway, replacing it with an urban boulevard and park, and “daylighting”…
Reading this book about walking 6,000 miles in New York. It’s fascinating. Spend enough time walking around a city and you see stuff like this, a car with cornrows.
I’m back in a New York state of mind, writing about my day in Harlem with Matt Green. Matt, you may recall, is walking every street of every borough, a quest that’ll take him about four years, during which he’ll walk about 8,000 miles. Along the way, he’s noticing all the little things that make…
Brooklyn-based art collective Elastic City makes “its audience active participants in an ongoing poetic exchange with the places we live in and visit.” How? By commissioning artists to create their own walks. As the group’s website explains, “These walks are participatory and may rely on sensory-based techniques, the creation of new folk rituals and/or other artist-derived…
I spent a day walking around Harlem with Matt Green this past summer. Matt’s “quest” is best explained by his website: imjustwalkin.com. Yes, it’s pretty awesome. Now I’m struggling to write about that day, and what it meant, and what Matt’s project means. I think it all ties together somehow, and somehow it explains why…
born to walk (and paddleboard) 